Method of making expanded metal products



Sept 24, 1940- J. P. ARENs Er Ax. 2,215,658

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Sept 24, 1940- J. P. ARI-:Ns er AL METHOD 0F MAKING EXPANDED METAL PRODUCTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 28, 1940 Patented Sept. 24, 1940 METHOD 0F MAKING EXIANDEDl METAL PRODUCTS Joseph P. Arens, Oak Park, and Rudolph W.

.I anda, Berwyn, Ill.,

assignors to Ceco Steel Products Corporation, Omaha, Nebr., a corporation of Nebraska Application March 28,

4 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of sheet metal products and more speciiically to a reenforced, expanded metal product and a method of making the same.

Expanded metal products employed in building constructions as lathng and in other structures for concrete reenforcement purposes have heretofore been reenforced by spot welding to one or both faces of the expanded web reenforcing rods, wires or fabricated ribs. In some instances, also,` where the meshes are of special shape which do not, upon expansion, reduce the length of the fabricated web, reenforcing ribs have been formed integrally with the reticulated or expanded metal webs.

Standard expanded metal products, however, with which our invention is concerned, comprise diamond'shaped meshes formed by laterally expanding a series of staggered slits. The mesh openings, as they are'lat'erally expanded, are by the same action longitudinally contracted, with the result that the ultimate length of the expanded metal webs is considerably less than the length of the original metal sheet from which they were formed.

As the result of this reduction in length, reenforcing ribs integral with the expanded metal webs could not be produced, because the length of the ribs exceeded that of the expanded webs. Consequently, the webs would be torn from .the ribs during the expanding operation.

One of the primary purposes of our present invention is to provide an expanded metal product having standard diamond shaped meshes and reenforced by strengthening ribs alternating with and formed integrally with the expanded metal webs. In order to accomplish this result without rupturing or weakening the metal at the juncture of the ribs and expanded webs, our invention contemplates reducing the length of the ribs during the expansion of the webs commensurately with the reduction in length of the webs so that excessive strains are not imposed upon the metal, and the completed product consists of alternately disposed and integrally united, expanded webs and strengthening ribs of equal length.

Further advantage in the completed product is attained by this reduction in length of the strengthening ribs in that the shortening of the ribs, which is brought about by transversely corrugating them, also strengthens the ribs so that the finished product incorporating the corrugated ribs is considerably stronger and affords greater resistance against deformation than a product embodying plain ribs, whether formed integrally 1940, Serial No. 326,358

with or applied to the expanded metal web or sheet. i

A further advantage inherent in our novel product and method resides in thefact that the product may be manufactured in a continuous and uninterrupted process in which the metal sheets are fed in at one end of the machine, travel uninterruptedly through the machine, and emerge at the opposite end as the completed product. This method of continuous movement of the sheet through the machine, while being subjected to the various requisite operations, tends not only to uniformity and excellence of product, but also to rapidity and economy in manufacture.

For the purpose'of facilitating an understanding of our invention and theprinciples involved therein; we have illustrated on' the accompanying drawingsa fragment of the product itself and a somewhat diagrammatic showing of the method employed in its production, from an inspection of which, whenv considered in connection with the following description, our invention and its advantageous features should be appreciated.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan View somewhat diagrammatic in character of an apparatus capable of carrying int'o practice our novel method;

Fig. 2 is a side view thereof;

Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan View of our novel product;

Fig. 5 is a sectional View on the line 5 5 of Fig. 2; and

Figs. 6 to l2, inclusive, are fragmentary sectional views taken on the planes of the lines 6 5, 1 1, 8 8, 9 9, iB l, Il ll and I2-I2 of Fig. 2.

In the production of vour expanded metal product, inl accordance with ourv novel method, a sheet of metal I5 of the desired gauge and of suitable dimensions is first subjected to the action of a pair of companionrolls i6 and Vl (Fig. l) by which spaced apart portions or areas of the sheet are provided with longitudinally disposed slits arranged in staggered relation. The rolls I6 and i1, as will be apparent from Fig. l, are fixed in spaced relation upon parallel shafts, one or both of which is` power driven. Each roll comprises a plurality of disks i3 disposed in contiguous relation and alternating in size so as to present 'cutting edges alternating with non-cutting recesses i9. The larger disks of roll l5 align with the smaller Fig.\3 is a sectional view on the Vline 3 3 of I It align with the larger disks of roll l1. When the metal sheet is passed between these rolls, it is cut thereby t'o provide a series of parallel, longitudinally extending rows of slits, the slits of each row being separated by uncut portions of the length of the recesses i9 and the slits in adjacent rows being disposed in staggered relation. The slitting of sheet metal by cutting rolls in a continuous operation being well known in this art, further detailed explanation of the slitting apparatus is believed to be unnecessary.

From Fig. l it will be apparent that after passing the slitting rolls, the sheet comprises a series of longitudinally extended slitted portions or areas 29 disposed transversely of the sheet in alternation with ilat unslitted portions or areas I9. The sheet is next passed between a pair of rolls 2i and 22 of which roll 2l is provided with a plurality of circumferentially projecting beads or ribs 23 arranged to engage the central portion of each slitted area of the sheet to depress said portion into a groove 24 formed in roll 22, as illustrated in Fig. 6, thereby expanding the central slits of the slitted areas into meshes, as illustrated in Fig, 6.

The sheet then proceeds between the rolls 25 and 25, which are respectively provided with the ribs 2'! and 28 and the wider groove 29 to expand additional slits of the slitted portions, as illustrated in Fig. 7. v

Thereupon the sheet passes between rolls 3l and 32, the former of which carries the ribs 33 and 35 to further project the material into groove 35 of roll 32 to form additional meshes, as illustrated in Fig. 8.

From these rolls the sheet, the slitted portions of which are now partially expanded, passes between rolls 39 and 3l. Roll 36 is equipped with the ribs 39 and 39 to expand the slits into additional meshes, and roll 31 is provided with a groove 4l of suflicient width to receive the expanded metal, as illustrated in`Fig. 9. This being the last expanding operation for slitted sheet areas of the width exemplied herein, it will be apparent that this last expanding operation would rupture or at least stretch and weaken the meshes attached to the uncut portions l of the sheet, because during the lateral expansion of the slits into meshes, the length thereof has been materially reduced by the action of the expanding rolls. Therefore, at the last expansion stage produced by rolls 36 and 3l, the length of the uncut portions I9 is reduced to that of the slitted and expanded portions. This reduction in length of the uncut portions I0 is accomplished by circumferentially disposed rounded teeth l2 on roll 35 intermeshing with companion teeth 133 on roll 31 so as to transversely corrugate the unslitted portions lll and thereby reduce their length to that of the expanded portions. The last draw or expansion adjacent each unslitted portion may therefore be performed without producing destructive stresses upon the side meshes of each expanded portion.

At this stage the sheet comprises a plurality of downwardly folded,'laterally expanded portions 44 alternating with flat, transversely corrugated portions 45, the expanded and the corruoperating with circumferentially projecting ribs 59 on roll 4'! to longitudinally bend the corrugated portion into shallow V-shape, as illustrated in Fig. 10.

The material is next passed between companion rolls l and 52 provided respectively with grooves 53 and ribs 54 to eiect a further bending of the corrugated portions, and iinally the material passes between similar rolls 55 and 56 provided respectively with the sharper grooves 51 and ribs 58 by which the corrugated portions are caused to assume the V-shape illustrated in Fig. 12 and form reenforcing ribs 59 for the product.

The downwardly folded expanded portions of the material are now restored substantially to a common plane by separating or spreading apart the corrugated reenforcing ribs 59. This is done by passing the reenforcing ribs between diverging guides 69, each comprising a lower rib guide member 52 beneath its respective corrugated rib 59 and an upper companion grooved guide member 83, all as illustrated in Fig. 3. These guides fan out or diverge from their receiving to their delivery ends, as indicated in Fig. l, so that when the material reaches the delivery ends of vthe guides the expanded portions thereof have been pulled upwardly by separation of the reenforcing ribs 59 into a substantially common plane.v To complete the positioning of the expanded metal portions into a common plane, the material is now passed between a pair of rolls 64 and 65 provided respectively with grooves 66 and ribs 51 to receive and bring into a common plane the ribs 59, and also provided with intervening at portions 58 between which the expanded p0rtions of the material pass and by which these portions are flattened and all brought into a common plane.

The product, therefore,v when delivered consists of a series of spaced apart, longitudinally extending corrugated strengthening ribs 59 alternating with webs 5l of expanded metal, consisting of standard diamond shaped meshes. The overall width of the product is considerably greater than the width of the original sheet, while the length of the product both with respect to the expanded metal web portions and the corrugated strengthening rib portions is somewhat less than the length of the original sheet, The lengths, however, of the expanded portions and the intervening strengthening ribs are substantially equal so that noundue strain is at any time imposed upon the 'meshes connected with the ribs, and the ribs themselves being corrugated are thereby increased in strength and add to the strength and rigidity of the product.

The structural details of both the product and the method herein disclosed may obviously be varied within considera-ble limits within the scope of the appended claims. For instance, the number of successive operations required to produce the expanded web portions will be dependent to some extent upon the width of such portions desired, and the shape and number of the rolls for forming the strengthening ribs will be determined by the size and shape of the strengthening ribs desired.

We claim:

1. The method of producing expanded metal articles having longitudinally disposed strengthening ribs which comprises providing spaced apart areas of a metal sheet with parallel slits arranged in staggered relation, applying pressure to said slitted areas, rst centrally between and then successively toward the unslitted areas to transversely expand and longitudinally contract said slits thereby forming expanded metal webs, corrugating the metal of the unslitted areas thereby reducing the length thereof to the length o-f the expanded areas, forming said unslitted areas into ribs, and flattening said expanded areas into flat, reticulated webs interposed between adjacent ribs.

2. The method of forming a reenforoed, expanded metal article from a metal sheet, which consists in slitting said sheet longitudinally at intervals to provide longitudinally extending unslitted areas alternating with areas having slits disposed in staggered relation, expanding the slits of said slitted areas into diamond shaped meshes by forcing the central portion of each slitted area transversely from the plane of the original sheet, corrugating said unslitted areas, bending said corrugated areas into rib formations, and restoring the expanded areas to a common plane, thereby providing at, reticulated webs shorter than the length of the original sheet alternating with corrugated strengthening ribs corresponding in length with the webs.

3. The method of producing a reenforced, ex-

panded metal product, which consists in longitudnally slitting transversely spaced apart portions of a metal sheet so as to provide said portions with slits arranged in staggered relation, projecting said slitted portions by successive stages away from the plane of the original sheet to transversely expand the slits into meshes, transversely corrugating the intervening unslitted portions of said sheet, and restoring .the expanded portions to a common plane.

4. The method of producing a reenforced expanded metal product which consists in providing transversely spaced apart portions of a metal sheet with a plurality of rows of separated slits, said slits being arranged in staggered relation, stretching said slitted portions in successive stages -by depressing the centers of said portions to expand the slits into diamond-shaped meshes, deforming the metal of the unslitted portions of the sheet to reduce the length thereof to that of the intervening expanded portions, forming said corrugated portions into ribs, and flattening the product.

JOSEPH P. ARENS. RUDOLPH W. JANDA. 

